Sociodemographic characteristics, health beliefs, and the accuracy of cancer knowledge.

Background: Recent studies have found that knowledge about cancer prevention and treatment differs across ethnic and socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, which could directly impact our decisions to engage in protective health behaviors. In this study, we examined sociodemographic-based differences in cancer knowledge and health beliefs and examined differences in the accuracy of the cancer knowledge based on health beliefs.

Methods: Cross-sectional surveys were conducted between July 1995 and March 2004 on adult, healthy, cancer-free control participants (N = 2074; 50% male) enrolled into a molecular epidemiological case-control study.

Associations among telomerase activity, p53 protein overexpression, and genetic instability in lung cancer.

Genomic instability is a driving force for tumorigenesis. p53 and telomerase play central roles in maintaining genomic integrity. The purpose of this study was to assess the associations among p53 protein overexpression, telomerase activity and genetic instability in lung cancer.

Benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide-induced 3p21.3 aberrations and genetic predisposition to lung cancer.

3p deletion, a common chromosome defect in lung cancer, occurs more frequently in the lung tumor tissues of smoking patients than it does in those of nonsmoking patients. This pilot study evaluated whether 3p aberrations induced by benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE), the metabolic product of benzo[a]pyrene, a constituent of tobacco smoke, were more common in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of 40 lung cancer patients than they were in those of 54 matched controls. Our hypothesis was that 3p sensitivity to BPDE reflects the susceptibility of a specific locus to damage from carcinogens in tobacco smoke.

Identifying and recruiting healthy control subjects from a managed care organization: a methodology for molecular epidemiological case-control studies of cancer.

Case-control studies with stringent matching criteria require large pools of healthy subjects from which to select matched controls. This paper describes a successful method of identifying a large pool of potential control subjects to participate in two molecular epidemiological case-control studies of lung cancer, each enrolling 400 case subjects and 400 control subjects. These studies are not population based, and the study base is not well-defined.

Case-control assessment of diet and lung cancer risk in African Americans and Mexican Americans.

In this case-control study we determined whether dietary differences underlie some of the ethnic and sex differences in US lung cancer rates. We examined the relationship between diet and lung cancer development in 137 lung cancer cases (93 African Americans and 44 Mexican Americans) and 187 controls (78 African Americans and 109 Mexican Americans). Cases reported a higher daily mean total fat intake (p < 0.